Have you ever had problems with your intestines due to stress or a major event? Not so strange, because your brain and gut are closely connected and talk a bit. Scientists call this telephone line the ‘brain-gut axis’. What can you do to keep both your brain and gut in good health?
You can see the brain as the driver, your gut as the train. You can still have such a good train driver, but without good equipment there will never be a pleasant train journey. Conversely, a train cannot be properly controlled if the driver pushes the wrong buttons.
It is the same in your body. The gut and brain function are closely intertwined. In a condition such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), in particular, ‘something’ seems to go wrong in the brain-gut axis, the communication between gut and brain. And that problem could be anywhere on that phone line.
communication disorder
The gut sends too strong signals, or the signals from the brain are not understood by the gut. It is often difficult to find out exactly where the cause of the intestinal complaints lies. Sometimes there’s inflammation in the gut or something in the metabolism that messes up communication in the enteric nervous system—the nerves of the stomach and intestines.
Serotonin appears to play a major role in this. Serotonin is a messenger substance, it is involved in transmitting messages from the brain to the gut. 90 percent of all serotonin in our body is in the gut. When it works properly, serotonin makes us feel happy, but when it is disrupted, we become depressed. And so our intestines get upset too.
Good bacteria
What to do? An antidepressant can help restore the serotonin balance, so that communication is improved again. Such a remedy can therefore also help with IBS. The advantage of drugs is that they are very powerful, the disadvantage is the side effects.
In theory, good nutrition and the good bacteria from a probiotic would work just as well, improving gut health and making them more resilient to communication disorders. But these effects are not yet very measurable. Research has yet to prove it, but it seems that you can prevent a lot of intestinal problems with good bacteria in the form of probiotics.
Sources):
